There are indications of a climate changing because of human actions that speak to those with an evidence-based mindset, indications meaningful because they affect people's livelihoods and careers. And when livelihoods are on the line, people tend to drop partisanship in favor of reality.

Even a generation ago, most “agriculture” students at colleges and universities studied the business concepts involved in operating a farm. They learned about depreciation and tax incentives. Those who followed expanded into the marketing arena, and those newly minted graduates introduced brokering and data-driven selling to the farm. Biotechnologists burst on the scene, and with them they brought genetically modified varieties of various crops.

Specialized agriculture education in Arkansas will soon not be solely the purview of higher education. A measure approved in this year's legislative session will create a pilot program for “agriculture schools” in the state.

Students are learning their craft in a sparkling public-private partnership that began long ago when one of the industry's heavyweights recognized a need for highly trained technicians who speak the language of John Deere Co.

Jim Mead, owner of Delta Grains, a seed and grain brokerage business near Jonesboro, was part of the vanguard in seed technology. In the 1980s, he was an integral part of Eagle Seed Co. in Weiner, a small but innovative company that developed new rice and soybean varieties. Now, he views the seed business from both sides.

Just as a wet spring can keep farmers out of their fields, standing water and mud can grind timber operations to a halt. Across the southern half of the state this spring, timber-cutting equipment has remained idle as poor weather has resulted in tightening mill stocks.

In today's world of specific-trait, genetically modified and hybrid crops, those seeds are worth their weight (at least) in gold, and in the span of a generation, seed costs have increased exponentially, but in many cases the resulting crops offset that input cost.